The Theocratic Politics Behind a MAGA Preacher’s Tour of Canada

In the early hours of July 27, Sean Feucht posted a photo of himself in front of his tour bus, kissing the ground on U.S. soil.

The evangelical Christian preacher from California had just crossed the border from Canada after the first leg of a cross-country tour that was supposed to include stops in Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. But in all six cities, officials cancelled or refused to grant permits for publicly owned venues. In some of the cities, Feucht performed at alternate venues, but controversy has followed him. In Montreal, a church that hosted Feucht without a permit was fined; in Toronto, a man threw smoke bombs at Feucht as he performed.

For Feucht, who strongly opposes homosexuality and has repeatedly met with top officials in the Trump administration, the controversies and resulting media attention have fuelled a dramatic narrative that he’s fighting satanic forces and anti-Christian discrimination in Canada. It’s a position Feucht has capitalized on since the COVID-19 pandemic, when he held large worship gatherings that defied public health restrictions on gathering and mask wearing.

The drama is continuing as Feucht has sought to perform in cities in Western Canada. His “Let Us Worship” tour in late August had scheduled stops in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, West Kelowna and Abbotsford. But the cancellations have continued: Abbotsford, a city with some of B.C.’s largest, most-established evangelical churches, cancelled Feucht’s permit to perform in a city park over security concerns. In West Kelowna, municipal staff are reviewing the permit for the preacher’s appearance after hearing community concerns.

Feucht wants socially conservative Christians to control governments and law-making, and his Canadian tour has also been accompanied by political rhetoric.

Conservative politicians at the federal, provincial and municipal levels — such as MPs Dean Allison, Bob Zimmer and Sukhman Gill, and B.C. MLAs Heather Maahs, Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong — have expressed outrage over the cancellations and called them an assault on freedom to worship. Freedom-of-expression experts have warned that preventing Feucht from speaking at public venues goes against Canadian democratic norms. But LGBTQ+ rights groups say they’ll continue to speak out against Feucht’s events being held at publicly funded venues.

“We have to say it's not OK. There are many people that have the privilege of this kind of speech not impacting them, but we have to speak up for the people who don't have that privilege,” said Wilbur Turner, the Kelowna-based president of Advocacy Canada.

Turner said that when people are complacent and don’t say or do anything to oppose such views, hateful ideas can grow and change societies for the worse.

“I look at what's happening in the U.S. in terms of totalitarianism, the Heritage Foundation putting out Project 2025, and the rolling back of rights for minorities,” he told The Tyee.

Management for Feucht’s “Let Us Worship” tour did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Christian nationalism

Carmen Celestini, a lecturer at the University of Waterloo who studies religion and politics in North America, said the attention on Feucht’s tour and cancellations could energize right-wing politics in Canada. The tour and the controversy it has provoked have led to a steady stream of news media coverage in Canada and the United States and provided endless fodder for Feucht’s own social media channels, which have hundreds of thousands of followers.

“This narrative of not being able to say things or persecution really can mobilize people,” Celestini said.

“We've seen it in America, we've seen it in other states that have gone very far right as well. We've also seen it in other mobilizations against civil rights, against LGBTQ+ rights: this idea that it is the majority that's being silenced and being oppressed by these movements of change.”

Feucht’s comments on LGBTQ+ people are particularly harsh. He’s posted an image of a demon, which he said represents Pride. He has repeatedly mocked transgender people, as well as gay men who become parents, and has celebrated the removal of Pride-themed merchandise from U.S. stores. Some attendees of his worship gatherings have claimed to be “delivered from” homosexuality.

Turner said this rhetoric creates stigma that has a real impact on the lives of queer people.

“We find kids that are homeless because of it,” Turner said. “It's because their parents are ashamed of them, and they're taught to be ashamed of them because it's taught that it's a sin.”

Feucht has not repeated his comments about homosexuality at his gatherings in Canada, and most of the Conservative politicians who have been defending Feucht have not talked about his socially conservative beliefs. Instead, politicians such as MP Michelle Rempel Garner have said they support Feucht’s right to free expression, and others, such as former MP Damien Kurek, have posted that they support the right to worship free from government interference.

“They're not talking about his ideas, but they're not also talking about the hate that he’s saying,” Celestini said. “And because he's so ‘famous,’ it brings power to the [Conservative] base that are part of the Christian nationalist movement.”

Christian nationalists hold socially conservative beliefs, such as opposing the acceptance of homosexuality, wanting abortion to be banned and promoting traditional patriarchal family structures. Those beliefs have been recently reflected in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal access to abortion legislation, and the Trump administration’s restrictions on transgender health care and rights.

But Christian nationalism is also an ideology that promotes the wholesale reshaping of western society and governments.

Christian nationalists believe the United States was founded as a Christian country and that Christians should control government and make the laws that govern society. It’s a belief that contrasts with what is widely understood to be a founding principle of the United States: the separation of church and state.

Christian nationalism’s most strident advocates call for the creation of a theocracy, in which the rules that govern society are shaped not by democratic means but by biblical interpretations.

Feucht has mixed thoughts about being called a Christian nationalist but has wholeheartedly embraced its ideas. In one interview, Feucht said: “I want a country where... there is no law outside of the biblical moral law.”

At another event, he spoke openly about the term, imitated his critics’ tone and words and embraced their characterization of the movement.

“We get called — ‘Well, you’re a Christian nationalist: you want the Kingdom to be the government!’ Yes!”

He continued, still in the voice of critics:

“‘You want God to come and overtake the government!’ Yes!

“‘You want Christians to be the only ones —’ Yes we do!”

(Even as Feucht advocates for laws based solely on the Bible, he has posted to X that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms should give him the right to perform in public venues.)

While many Canadians might associate this strain of evangelical Christianity with the United States, it’s also active in Canada — and some of those Canadians have been closely connected with U.S. political figures.

Celestini pointed out that Alberta preacher Artur Pawlowski, who served a brief prison sentence for his part in the Coutts border blockade, has been a frequent guest on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-obsessed Infowars show.

“Pawlowski created a narrative of Canada being a police state, under the tyrannical Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, where Christians were being both persecuted and prosecuted for their faith, in an attempt to destroy religion and usher in the Great Reset,” Celestini wrote in a 2024 paper about Christian nationalism in Canada.

It’s a narrative that Feucht has been running with since he first faced headwinds on his Canadian tour. Feucht has called Canadian government officials “tyrannical” and said he experienced a “demonic stronghold.” Although thousands of Christian churches across Canada regularly hold services without incident, he has also claimed that events that celebrate LGBTQ+ identity are supported, while Christian events are persecuted.

Feucht has previously said that President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada are a “reckoning” from God, who is using Trump as a “hand of justice” to “expose the evils that are happening in your country.” Trump has repeatedly said Canada can avoid the tariffs if it joins the United States as the 51st state.

After having his tour events cancelled, Feucht said he’s been “in touch with senior White House officials and they are watching what is unfolding with blatant Christian persecution in Canada.”

Feucht — who has held services at the Pentagon and White House and calls U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth his friend — also posted a screenshot about the United States imposing visa restrictions on “foreign officials who are complicit in censoring Americans.”

At his appearances in Canada, Feucht has declared that Christianity is baked into Canada’s identity.

“It's on your coat of arms. It's on your government buildings,” he said during his Toronto appearance. “It's inscribed. You can't get rid of it: ‘That God would have dominion from sea to shining sea.’”

Celestini said there might be a temptation in Canada to dismiss Feucht as just another over-the-top American evangelical Christian. But she said it’s important to realize that Christian nationalism is also active in Canada and promoting distrust of institutions that sit at the heart of society and government.

“By having those narratives, you have to create distrust in the institutions: distrust in the media, distrust in what the government is doing and saying.”